Pretty little Butterflies with pink flowers. Hand-coloured lithograph c1860.

by Humphreys, H.N.

Pretty Pamphila Skipper Butterflies antique print by Humphreys.
Polymattus Salmacis Butterfly (Durham Argus Butterfly) male, female, female underside. Male Polyommatus Artaxerxes Butterfly , female, underside. Host plant: Ononis procurrens (Trailing Rest-Harrow).

Original  hand-coloured lithograph arranged and illustrated by Henry Noel Humphreys (1810-1879) with characters and descriptions by John Obadiah Westwood (1805-1893), F.L.S. and secretary of the Entomological Society, for British Butterflies and their Transformations published in London c1860.

Humphreys was a British naturalist, entomologist and illustrator. His presentation of butterflies with caterpillar and chrysalis, impressed curators at the British Museum, who adopted this method of illustrating the transformation lifecycle of insects. Humphreys wrote, “The study of natural history... cannot conceive a more pleasing and natural introduction to its general study than entomology, of which I think the division of Lepidoptera.. the most easy and attractive section.  H. N. Humphreys, Esq.”

This pretty lithograph is currently half-framed, mounted between conservation antique-white ragmat, and covered with cellophane for presentation and protection until framed. (It can be sold as print only if required.)
Page size is 285 x 210mm (11.25 x 8.25 inches). External size for frame is 380 x 320mm (15 x 12.5 inches).